Tiyire

I'm slowly being drawn into Homestuck fandom: first I saw fanart, then I started to read the webcomic, then there was that one great fic, then another, then so many of them! and it's probably already far too late. But it's okay, because have I mentioned the amazing AUs? Wow. Nevermind how good the canon is, the fandom is even better.

It's a very interesting fandom to lurk be in. I came to online fandom recently and until now most of them had been somewhat similar: many journal-based book or TV series fandom have lots in common. (Anime/manga fandoms are a bit different, but I only lurk in those from afar.) Homestuck is different.

It's all over the place, on many different platforms, with an especially big presence on Tumblr. It's impossible to keep up with all of it; it's hard to keep up with canon, sometimes, because it updates so often! Not like series, where you get one hour weekly, or books, where you have to wait years. No chance to read all the discussion threads.
The fans seem to come from very different corners of the web. And the demographic is different: it was a bit weird to read on the MSPA forum that apparently "the default assumption in fandom is heterosexual male" because it's the opposite of my experience.

There seems to be a lot more art in Homestuck fandom than in most Western media fandoms. Probably because canon is done in MSPaint, with sometimes not-that-professional looking art: fans are not afraid to make art that doesn't look perfect, and it's wonderful. There is so much accompanying fanart done for stories, and music (!) done for stories, and RP, and cosplay - everyone is inspiring each other, it feels very alive. There are also more collaborations than I saw elsewhere. And a lot more fan comics! I don't know if fanventures (forum adventures, TVTropes calls them "interactive comics") are a thing anywhere else? I love them. And the idea of using Tumblr for additional worldbuilding for already elaborate AUs is great. And then there are computer games, vids, of course, and cookbooks, and musicals, and so much more. Fans are amazingly creative.

On a practical note, it's very convenient that so many Homestuck fics are hosted on the AO3 (because the AO3 offers customized skins :) ) I'm hoping that some of them might come over to Fanlore, because currently we have very little on Homestuck (see Category:Homestuck) and most of it is very stubby.

Unfortunately it's difficult to rec stories to people who don't know canon because even most AUs rely on a certain amount of canon knowledge. But there's a lot of pretty fanart! There are some recs tagged "Homestuck" at fanart_recs, or just browse the AO3 or deviantart. Just as an example, the last piece I found and loved was A Study in Rose, Rose&Jade fusion with Sherlock Holmes.

/rambling here to collect thoughts I didn't know how best to put into the fandom page on fanlore

(I now have the perfect icon for this post!)

Most people, when they find a new fandom that is tiny and that they want to encourage others to join, make a pimping post, create comms and/or fanworks, and squee. The first thing I do: Make a fanlore page about it. Heh.

Tower of God, a manhwa/webtoon that I read all in one sitting in 6 hours last night because I couldn´t stop. (Except in chapter 68 where I stared for five minutes at that one picture. Yes.) It has good art (colored!), very interesting characters (many of them non-human) & character dynamics, worldbuilding background, and it´s exciting. I have no idea where it´s going (if it´s going down the apparently logical plot route it will take many years to finish and it seems very unlikely), but I definitely want to find out. I also want all the Anak/&Androssi fanworks. *goes back to stare at chapter 68*
The huge gap on that fanlore page is currently Korean fandom - anyone speak Korean, by any chance? ^^

Check it out!